Philadelphia Union

Voting opens today at futbolmls.com, MLS’ Spanish-language website, for Latino Player of the Year. Carlos Valdes and Michael Farfan have both been nominated.

At the Daily Doop, Kerith Gabriel reports that some news outlets have apparently missed the difference between training and trialing when it comes to Cristhian Hernandez’ offseason stint with Real Sociedad. The post includes links to reports MARCA and Media Tiempo, both of whom understand the distinction (crappy translations here and here,) and clearly describe the purpose of his trip as training, as well as a video interview with Hernandez on the Real Sociedad website (article translated here, you’re on your own with the video).

MLS

While yesterday’s nor’easter resulted in the postponement of last night’s playoff game between New York and DC, the other two scheduled games saw the elimination of the two teams with the best regular season records. While Kansas City defeated Houston 1–0 on Wednesday evening, they are out of the playoffs on goal difference after losing 2–0 in the first leg. After losing 1–0 to San Jose on Sunday night, LA eliminated the Earthquakes from the playoffs with a 3–1 win on Wednesday evening, with Robbie Keane scoring two goals and Landon Donovan registering two assists. It was San Jose’s first loss at Buck Shaw Stadium this year.

The New York vs. DC game has been rescheduled for tonight at 7:30pm and will be followed by Real Salt Lake vs. Seattle at 10pm. You can watch both games on NBCSN.

DC United players and staff were understandably upset at the decision to postpone the game, not to mention the United supporters who had traveled to attend the game. A report at MLSsoccer.com says that by the time the decision to postpone the game was made, “Every section in the stadium was empty, save one with roughly 700 tightly-packed black-clad United supporters.” The league, which had provided free tickets and transport for United supporters after Hurricane Sandy forced a switch in home venues, will do the same for supporters who want to attend tonight’s rescheduled game.

Hans Backe says the game should have been postponed earlier. Ben Olsen said, “Have you seen the field? It looks fine to me. I’m baffled that we can’t play this game.”

US

The draw for the hexagonal stage of World Cup qualifiers took place on Wednesday and the US will be on the road for both the first and last game, beginning with Honduras away on Feb. 6 and ending with Panama away on Oct. 15. In fact, three of the first four US games are on the road. The US plays Mexico away on March 26 and at home on Sept. 10.

Jurgen Klinsmann said about starting with all of those road games, “If you get the results on the road, there will be far more confidence in your home games and you can finish it off. It’s fine with me. We’ve just got to be really sharp and focused and get the job done on the road in difficult environments. We all know that’s what the region is about.”

Elsewhere

A day after celebrating their 125th anniversary, Celtic managed a stunning 2–1 victory over Barcelona in Champions League play on Wednesday, doing so while possessing the ball for only 16.36 minutes.

Author: Ed Farnsworth
Ed used to play drums. A lot. Now he's managing editor of PSP. He likes researching Philadelphia soccer history. A lot. Email him at efarnsworth@phillysoccerpage.com. Follow him on Twitter @FarnsworthPSP.

4 Comments

Player of the Year. The headline has been corrected. We have no credible information indicating Valdes and Marfan are being held prisoner by hostile guerrilla forces. If so, we expect the elements of the Geneva Convention to be upheld so that no harm will come to either of them, Dick Cheney’s fondness for waterboarding notwithstanding.

What the league has done with the Pink Cows – Untied series is a travesty. If Dead Bull arena was unplayable last week, the game should have been moved to a neutral site or they could have played just one game at DC. Then, after screwing that up, they cancelled the game last night for no apparent reason (except to make the Untied fans take an extra day off to go to the game). A couple of years ago, the WNT had a friendly scheduled during a snow storm in Salt Lake City. Did they cancel it? No, they did snow angels when they scored. I guess someone was afraid that Reefer Marquez would be cold or something.